Waterford rules out Doulton bid

Wednesday 6 March 2002 00:00 BST

WATERFORD Wedgwood has ruled out a bid for Royal Doulton while revealing it had again lifted its stake in the rival ceramics house. Finance director Richard Barnes said Waterford had bought another 500,000 Doulton shares, lifting its stake to 21.29%. On Monday it bought 4.7m shares, or 5.66% of the business.

Barnes said the original purchase of 14.9% in November 1999 was defensive and strategic. 'Our stance has not changed since then.' The additional stakebuilding 'gives us a larger say, a bigger seat at the table...to work with them'.

Waterford unveiled a slump from profits last time of e79.6m (£48.7m) to a loss of e43.3m in 2001 as it was hit by a slide in demand, post-11 September and restructuring charges and writedowns.

Sales in the first two months of the new year were up on the prior four months, but still down on a year earlier. The group expects little improvement in the rest of the first half. However, the restructuring - it revealed 1,400 job losses in November - would produce an annualised boost to profits of e43m.

The final dividend is held at 2.4 cents a share, despite the losses and the e31m increase in net debt to e364m.